Crime control: Police roll out 110,000 GSM lines to officers

The Nigeria Police said on Thursday that ity would roll out 110, 000 Globacom mobile phone lines to its personnel nationwide, to enhance their capacity in fighting crime.

The acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, who disclosed this at the inauguration of the project in Abuja, said that the lines were secured as an in-house means of communication among officers.

Mr. Abubakar said that the provision of the mobile phone lines is an initiative of the Police Cooperative Multi-Purpose Society Ltd., and the lines would later be increased to one million to cover all personnel of the force.

The IG, who was represented by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Emmanuel Udeoji, said, “fundamentally, the lines will enhance the capacity of the policeman to fight crime at reduced cost.”

The Executive Secretary of the police cooperative, acting Commissioner of Police, Agboola Glover, said that the lines would be given to the personnel under the cooperative’s communication project known as “Cooperative Communication (COOPCOM)’”.

Mr. Glover said that Globacom, a Nigerian telecom, would provide them under the Close User Group (CUG) at a reduced cost, adding that each officer was required to pay N600 monthly rental charge to make use of the line.

He said that Globacom was selected by the cooperative because “it is an indigenous company with national geographical spread”.

Globacom’s Head of Public Sector, Tunde Amunikoro, said that the lines would assist the officers in crime detection and fighting.

Mr. Amunikoro said that apart from providing efficient telecommunications network, the company is committed to making the country realise its goal of providing cost effective telecommunications.